FishBase says "RTC is introduced but not established in Florida." Anyone knows more?

thebiggerthebetter

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Anyone knows anything about this?

I've not done any digging deeper than what FishBase states in RTC "Biology" Section: Feeds on fish, crabs and fruits (Ref. 6868). The species is introduced but not established in Florida. http://www.fishbase.us/summary/Phrac...liopterus.html

Note no reference for the last statement... but I'd not think this would refer to sporadic illegal releases but likely to a controlled state-sponsored release, no?
 

MN_Rebel

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They are aquarium releases. I know a lake in WI that never freezes and stays 80F all year around. Plenty of RTC, Pacus and rumored piranhas have caught in this lake. No fingerlings have found and all fish caught were adults.
 

Thekid

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They are aquarium releases. I know a lake in WI that never freezes and stays 80F all year around. Plenty of RTC, Pacus and rumored piranhas have caught in this lake. No fingerlings have found and all fish caught were adults.
What lake?


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MN_Rebel

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Lake Columbia. Its a power plant lake.
 

thebiggerthebetter

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They are aquarium releases. I know a lake in WI that never freezes and stays 80F all year around. Plenty of RTC, Pacus and rumored piranhas have caught in this lake. No fingerlings have found and all fish caught were adults.
Interesting. Over what possible period of time might these fish been residing in that lake and how big is the lake?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Lake,_Wisconsin Columbia Lake is a lake near Portage in Columbia County, Wisconsin, United States. It is fed by the Wisconsin River and receives warm water discharged from a nearby power plant.[1] As a result, the portion of the lake to the west of a dividing bank of earth is 70 to 85 °F or circa 20 to 30 °C year round, with a dense cover of fog in colder weather. This temperature prevents many types of lake weeds from growing. The lake is stocked with various types of fish and contains an uncommon hybrid bass.[2] Four pacus, a South American fish similar to the piranha, which were thrown into the lake survived until they were caught and removed from the lake.[3]
 

MN_Rebel

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Interesting. Over what possible period of time might these fish been residing in that lake and how big is the lake?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Lake,_Wisconsin Columbia Lake is a lake near Portage in Columbia County, Wisconsin, United States. It is fed by the Wisconsin River and receives warm water discharged from a nearby power plant.[1] As a result, the portion of the lake to the west of a dividing bank of earth is 70 to 85 °F or circa 20 to 30 °C year round, with a dense cover of fog in colder weather. This temperature prevents many types of lake weeds from growing. The lake is stocked with various types of fish and contains an uncommon hybrid bass.[2] Four pacus, a South American fish similar to the piranha, which were thrown into the lake survived until they were caught and removed from the lake.[3]
This specific four pacus had been living in that lake for over four years.
 

thebiggerthebetter

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Thanks much, all.

Am I imagining it wrong or over-thinking? To establish to me would mean that sexually mature adults of both sexes should be present for a significant time period and enough of them and they should procreate and multiply successfully enough to not diminish the existing population. No?

It appears that the evidence of several, maybe half a dozen dead RTCs in FL should not lead to the "failed to establish" conclusion. The more proper wordage could be "failed to survive". To say they failed to establish, I'd think a large scale experiment needed to be carried out. I do get that failure to survive invariably negates establishment too but we don't know how many perished and how many survived per se.

So IMHO, "apparently(?) failed to survive" describes the findings more rigorously and clearly whilst "failed to establish" confuses. Maybe it's just me but, for illustration, one can say "RTC failed to establish in Africa". This statement would carry little sense as opposed to "RTC does not survive in salt water", which is the reason RTC has not colonized Africa (if that was that simple but it's a start at least).

So, my tangent is: there could have been a "large-scale experimentation". Hence, again, does anyone know more?
 

Big Jay

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Lake Columbia. Its a power plant lake.
That's because the temp of the water is high due to the power plant using it to cool their towers. We have a similar situation in NJ with Oyster Creek. It's all man-made though. Completely controlled by man. If they shut the plant down or re-route the cooling flow, those fish are dead. It happened here in NJ at Oyster Creek one year. Striped bass often live in the creek year round vs. migrating because the water is so warm. They did something one year where the cooling outflow shut down and boom, all the fish died.

Florida is completely different. Those fish naturally adapt to the climate. We can't control that. The everglades now are filled with cichlids. I remember taking an airboat tour a few years ago and all you saw when you looked down was cichlids. Mayans, tilapia, acara, etc..all right under the boat.

To my knowledge, if the temp and environment is right + one of each sex = babies. It's not really more complicated than that.
 
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